Morsi's Remand Extended by 15 Days

Egypt’s judiciary extended the detention of the ousted president pending investigation into his alleged collaboration with Hamas.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 8/13/2013, 5:46 AM

Mohammed Morsi

AFP photo

Egypt’s judiciary extended on Monday the detention of ousted President Mohammed Morsi by another 15 days pending investigation into his alleged collaboration with Hamas, reported Al Arabiya.

Judge Hassan Samir extended Morsi’s detention as the probe continues into the former president’s potential collusion with Hamas to escape from the Wadi al-Natroun prison in 2011.

Morsi is accused of having coordinated prison breaks in which prisoners and guards were killed during mass protests against the rule of then-President Hosni Mubarak. Dozens of members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group escaped jail in the breaks.

Hamas, which reportedly was involved in helping the jail breaks, is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, having been formed in the 1980s from Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations in Gaza.

Some reports indicated that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization also worked with Morsi to coordinate the escape.

Morsi has been held by the army since his overthrow on July 3. His location remains unknown to the general public. Several foreign diplomats who have visited Egypt trying to broker a deal between the government and the Muslim Brotherhood visited him.

His supporters continue to rally in several parts of the country demanding his return to power. In Cairo, they continue to stage sit-ins in the main squares.

The military-backed government has warned them to end their sit-ins, offering them a safe exit if they decide to do so.

Security sources had said the interior ministry would begin an operation to break up the sit-in on Monday. Later reports, however, indicated that the operation was postponed because the media had made public that it would start on Monday. The protesters are bracing themselves for clashes with the military.

Once the siege begins, the protesters will be “surrounded,” no one will be let into the sit-ins and the protesters will be given several warnings to leave, a security official told AFP. “This will last two to three days.”